


Hello There

by Lenorajade



Category: The Rookie (TV 2018)
Genre: Costume Party, F/M, Fluff, Jar Jar Binks is a war criminal, Lucy thinks Tim is hot, May The Fourth Be With You, Pre-Relationship, Star Wars References, Tim is an ass man, Tim is in denial, Tim thinks Lucy is hot, both of them are hot and they are both painfully aware of that fact, halloween party, lightsabers are badass and make anyone look hotter, maybe ooc i don't know and i don't care, no beta we die like men, rachel is mentioned but does not make an appearance, tim's pov
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-04
Updated: 2020-05-04
Packaged: 2021-03-02 17:26:54
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,868
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24000559
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lenorajade/pseuds/Lenorajade
Summary: Tim is actually a huge fan of Star Wars, has been since he was a kid, not that he ever talks about it. Why would he? It never comes up... until the yearly Halloween party requires the officers to come in costume, and Tim suddenly discovers that his rookie sure can handle a lightsaber. That really shouldn't be as fascinating to him as it is.Posted on May 4th on purpose- May the Fourth be with you!
Relationships: Angela Lopez/Wesley Evers, Nyla Harper/Donovan, Tim Bradford/Lucy Chen
Comments: 19
Kudos: 82





	Hello There

**Author's Note:**

> I have not written a fanfic since literally 2013 so bear with me here, but I’ve been watching a lot of Star Wars lately, and Jedi are basically just Space Cops. Also, I know Lucy would look hot with a lightsaber, and I wanted to give all of these guys a chance to have a little fun. :) If you see any typos or errors, shut up about it ok? i'm sensitive  
> This story takes place in October (obviously), a month and a half BEFORE the kidnapping in 2x11. The timeline isn’t exact for the other episodes, so let’s just say this takes place mid-season 2, after 2x09.  
> Disclaimer: Author hates Jar Jar Binks, in both an 'ironic bandwagon' way and also in a very real 'he sucks' kind of way. Jar Jar apologists do not interact.

It’s not that Tim didn’t like Halloween. He had actually enjoyed it when he was younger, he and his buddies using it as an excuse to go out and get drunk with a bunch of hot women dressed in the shortest skirts they could get away with. Even once he and Isabel had gotten together, they’d had fun passing out candy to the cute kids that came to their door, pausing whatever horror movie they’d been watching to hand over full-size candy bars that Isabel insisted they buy. Halloween was never high on his list of favorite holidays, but it was fun enough. Until the first time he had to work a shift on Halloween night. 

Tim prided himself on being a damn good cop, always pushing himself to answer the toughest calls, face the toughest bad guys. But on Halloween, he spent his shift cuffing drunk college kids and chasing down teenagers with eggs and toilet paper. The most intense police work he faced was talking down a mother who was convinced her next-door-neighbor had purposefully tried to poison her son with expired Fun Dip. If there was any big-time crime going down, it was pushed to detectives almost immediately to free up patrol officers for the apparently vital task of staking out bars and breathalyzing anyone who looked a little young. It wasn’t even fun dragging his rookies along with him, since there was nothing challenging about scanning fake IDs; plus he was usually so miserable that not even quizzing them on the Rook Book could improve his mood. Once you worked as a cop on Halloween, the day was ruined forever.

Every year since that first Halloween shift, he had prayed every year the dates would work out and he’d be off for October 31st, but no such luck. He and Lucy were scheduled to be off on November 1st, but Halloween night they would be stuck in the shop. Which is why, when Grey gave him an out, he took it without a second thought.

At the end of roll call that morning, about a week before Halloween, he had asked the T.O.’s and their rookies to stay behind. As the rest of the room emptied, Tim and Angela exchanged a glance and joined Harper in walking up to the podium. He took his place just behind Lucy, and she smiled at him in greeting.

“Bradford, Lopez, I’m sure you two are familiar with the department’s yearly SafeTreat program?” Grey asked them.

“Yes, sir,” said Angela. Tim just nodded. He had never actually been to one, but he was always jealous of the officers who were assigned to SafeTreat for the night and got to skip out on patrol.

Nolan cocked his head. “Safe treat, sir? Is that the Halloween event I’ve been seeing posters for?”

“It’s something we do with LAFD,” West jumped in before Grey could answer. “They set up tables in local fire stations and families can bring their kids there to trick or treat instead of going around to people’s houses. They get a bunch of cops and firefighters to dress up in costumes and hang out with the kids, lets the kids feel special and makes overprotective parents feel safer than going out on the streets.” At the others’ looks, he added, “It’s been going on for years, I had to go pass out candy with my dad a couple of times. Sir.”

Rolling his eyes at the interruption, Grey continued. “Exactly right, Officer West. And you’re going again. I want you six there as Mid-Wilshire’s representatives. Before you start arguing with me about it--”

“No arguments, Sir.” Tim said. “Happy to do it.”

“You are?” Lucy turned around and looked at him, her eyes wide with amused surprise. “You realize there are gonna be firefighters there, right?”

“Small price to pay if I get out of playing drunk tank tag all night.” 

Angela nodded at that. Last year she’d been thrown up on twice in one night by the same guy, and he could tell from the haunted look in her eye that that memory was at the front of her mind. “I’m with Bradford. A few hours in a firehouse is better than an hour spent trying to get the smell of puke out of your hair.” 

“I’m assuming us boots don’t actually get a say in this?” asked Nolan.

“No.” said Tim, Angela, and grey at the same time. 

“Fair enough. I like kids anyway,” he said with that grin that always meant he hadn’t actually wanted to argue, he just wanted to push back a little for the sake of pushing. Tim allowed himself a small eye roll. He glanced at Lucy to see if she had caught Nolan’s bit, too, and could tell by her small smirk she had. He couldn’t tell if she was happy or not about the assignment. She’d known to expect an unpleasant Halloween shift, so maybe she was relieved, but he realized he didn’t actually know if she liked kids or not. She’d always done fine when they dealt with them on the job, but that was a far cry from actually enjoying ‘hanging out’ with them, as West had said.

“You’re telling me I’m gonna have to wear some dumb costume?” Harper asked, her tone making it clear how little she liked the idea.

“If you’d prefer, Detective Harper, I could always put you on traffic stops for the night.”

“No, Sir,” she said, straightening. “A trip to Party City it is.”

“Let me know what you get,” smiled Nolan, “and I can pick a costume to match.”

“Only if you want to show those kids what it looks like when a 40-year-old rookie gets knocked on his ass,” she bit back. Even Tim couldn’t tell if she was joking.

“Alright, that’s enough.” Grey called their attention back to him. “Families will be arriving at the fire station at 6:30. All you need to do is show up in a costume and spend a few hours keeping the kids entertained, and the parents happy. Come early to help set up, and stay to take it down at the end. Try to avoid getting into any measuring contests with the firefighters. Please, _please_ , put some effort into making sure this goes well, it reflects on our precinct and is an important part of our community engagement. If you really put your backs into it I’ll even let you spend the rest of the shift writing reports on how it went instead of sending you back out on duty. But for now, you all have shifts today to focus on. Get to work.” He picked up his clipboard and started to walk out, but he paused in the doorway to add-- “and I hope this goes without saying, but please, _kid-friendly_ costumes.” With that, he was gone, but Tim could have sworn he saw the start of a chuckle on Wade’s face as he turned around. 

He heard Lucy laugh, and looked down to see slight confusion on her face. “What does he think we’re gonna do? Show up in skin-tight catsuits? A little black dress and fishnets with some whiskers drawn on?” 

Angela chuckled at that, and Tim might have too, if he hadn’t been busy picturing Lucy in a catsuit in his head. Before he let himself get to imagining the fishnets, though, he gave his head a little shake and tuned in to hear Harper say she wouldn’t be surprised if Nolan did exactly that.

“Come on, Jackson, we’re spending the morning brainstorming ideas in between calls. We are absolutely going to have matching costumes.” Angela gestured to West as she headed out of the briefing room. West followed, but he didn’t seem as enthusiastic about it as Angela.

“West not like Halloween?” Tim asked Lucy as they watched him sulk after his T.O. 

She rolled her eyes affectionately as she answered, “No he doesn’t, it’s his biggest flaw. I don’t understand it, it’s one of my favorite days of the year.”

“Not for long, it won’t be,” he replied grimly.

“You keep saying that, but I refuse to let you ruin this day for me, Tim.” She spoke with a smile, and as always, he sucked in a breath at her use of his first name. She usually didn;t use it when they were on duty and it wasn’t an emotional moment. He might have called her out for it, but he decided to let it slide. Just this once.

“Boot, get the shop ready, I have to go make a call,” Harper said, already pulling out her phone as she strode out of the room.

Nolan smirked conspiratorially at the other two as he sauntered after her. “Mark my words, I will find out what she’s going as, and we _will_ match, and it _will_ be hilarious.”

As he left, Lucy sighed to herself. “She’s going to kill him if he actually makes that happen. I can’t imagine Harper being O.K. with joke costumes.” The two of them started to make their way to the equipment window, walking together as they talked.

“Ah, she’ll be fine. Costumes aren’t new to her.” 

Lucy smirked up at him. ‘What do you wanna bet that she ends up wearing an old undercover outfit as her costume and tries to play it off as some T.V. character?”

“I’m not taking that bet, that’s probably what’ll happen.” Tim quirked his lips, picturing Harper in an old hoodie and claiming she’s someone from Narcos. 

They reached the counter, and after telling the officer what they needed, Lucy swung around to lean her hip against the wall and face him. 

“So,” she said, looking at him.

He let it hang for a moment as he filled out the gear check-out form, then looked up at her blankly, pretending not to know what she was about to bring up. “So what, boot? Spit it out.”

She gave him her ‘ _you-asshole_ ’ eyes and continued, “ _So_ , what are we going as? I can come up with the idea if you don’t want to think of anything, I’m pretty good at putting together costumes on the fly.”

“ _We_ are not going as anything, boot. Come up with anything you want, but I’m not a couple’s costume kind of guy.” He handed the paperwork over and waited for her reply. Wait, did he say ‘couple’s’? He had meant to say matching. Shit-- maybe she hadn’t noticed. He didn’t want to look at her to check though, instead staring straight ahead nonchalantly as if he had said exactly what he meant to say.

A heavy beat later, she replied, though her tone sounded a little hesitant. “Yeah, of course, no problem.” Did she sound disappointed? “You are going to wear a costume though right?”

“Sergeant wants a costume, he’ll get a costume.” Tim didn’t want to linger on this topic; now that she had brought it up, his mind was flashing back to the only other costume she had mentioned for herself, the fishnets and the black dress and... “Hurry up, boot!” He snapped at her as their war bags were dropped on the counter. “Shop won’t pack itself.” He strode off toward the garage, feeling her presence only two steps behind him. He tried to focus on evaluating how much faster she was with their gear now than she had been 6 months ago, but his mind had started filling in details of imaginary-Lucy’s outfit, adding high heels and red lipstick, stealing bits from other revealing Halloween outfits he had seen women wear over the years. He shook his head again. This was gonna be a long shift.

* * *

Tim looked over his costume in the mirror as he notched his belt closed, making sure he hadn’t forgotten any details. A tan T-shirt and dog tags paired with his old military uniform, the same camo pants and boots he wore in Afghanistan. He’d been dressing as G.I. Joe every Halloween since he left the military, and he wasn’t about to switch it up now. Isabel had thought it was odd that he wore his actual uniform as a costume, but he kind of liked having an excuse to put the thing on again. Plus, it was always an ego booster to fit into the same pants he’d worn when he was in peak shape as a younger man. He buckled on an empty shoulder holster and some leather fingerless gloves that weren’t exactly Army issue, but made the outfit look more like a costume than actual fatigues. Satisfied that he had all the parts he needed for people to get it, he checked his watch. 5:30. He’d need to head out soon. 

That week had passed quickly. Several robberies, a few domestics, and one pumpkin-carving contest gone horribly wrong, had all kept him and his boot fairly busy. Lucy had tried to bounce costume ideas off of him when they were sitting in the shop, but he could tell it was less for her sake and more about her trying to sniff out what he was planning to wear. Surprising him with a matching costume like Nolan was planning for Harper was exactly the kind of thing Lucy would do. He knew she liked to catch him off guard, make him smile or even laugh, and he tried to anticipate it and flip it back on her. It was almost a game they played, seeing who could surprise the other. Lately, Lucy had been chalking up more wins than usual, and he didn’t want her to get a big ego by successfully scoping out his costume and showing up in a complementary one, as cute as that would be. 

At that thought, Tim scolded himself. _Cut it with the cute stuff, Bradford._ That had been happening more and more lately, too. 

Since the moment he had first seen her walking into roll call on her first day, he had thought she was an extremely pretty woman. Beautiful, even. He’d have to be blind not to have noticed it. But as soon as he had been assigned as her T.O., he had shut those thoughts down. He wasn’t lying when he said he viewed training as a sacred duty, and he wouldn’t do Chen the disservice of messing up her training by going easy on her, or even worse, making her feel objectified or put in an inappropriate position. He was actually pretty proud of the professional distance he had maintained. He had even let her set him up with Rachel, and that was going really well. He genuinely cared for Rachel, and felt comfortable with where his and Lucy’s trainer/trainee relationship was at. Sure, maybe he let her get away with more attitude than he would usually accept from a rookie, but she earned that all on her own by passing nearly every test he threw at her. They were solid, and his initial attraction hadn’t been an issue-- and it had definitely stayed unknown to anyone but him.

Every so often, though, he would be reminded that his rookie was, well... a beautiful, smart, passionate woman. The type of woman that in any other context, he would have asked out for drinks months ago. There were times when he knew his appreciation for her in that moment had less to do with her skills as a cop, and more to do with her charms as a person. Sometimes it was the way she stood up to suspects twice her size, holding her ground and never giving an inch. Sometimes, it was the way a loose strand of hair would come undone from her bun, brushing against the nape of her neck and she turned to smile at him. Sometimes (and he was ashamed to admit this had happened more than once), it was the way she bent over a scene as she searched for evidence, likely not realizing she was giving him a perfect view of her athletic build. 

He tried to brush those moments off as quickly as they came, but there had been a few close calls where he was positive Lucy had caught him staring for a second too long or looking away suddenly as she straightened up. Of course, there had been moments where he had noticed her gazing at him for just a beat longer than normal, or taking a deep breath when he got up in her face about something. Once during an after-hours sparring match, he had seen her eyes darken as he lifted up his shirt to wipe the sweat away, and he had to pretend he was late to go watch a football game so he could turn around and get out of there before she could notice the bulge in his shorts.

Something was there, hazy and heated between them, but he wasn’t sure what it was. He wasn’t about to take a risk on something as uncertain as that, especially not when he was happy seeing where things went with Rachel, and especially not with his rookie. Alright, maybe the ‘not with his rookie’ thing should have come first. 

As he drove his truck over to the designated LAFD station, he realized he had been trying so hard to tune his boot out whenever she talked out costumes that he couldn’t remember what she had settled on for herself, or even if she had told him. She had mentioned a bunch of different ideas, but never seemed to really consider any of them. He was pretty sure she purposefully kept whatever her final decision was from him, since he was keeping his a secret, too, but he still ran over what he remembered in his mind as he drove. A ghost... a vampire... those were too obvious… a zombie cheerleader… a ‘kid-friendly’ cat … no, she knew she could come up with something better than that… Sansa Stark? She’d have to wear a wig... One of those inflatable dinosaur costumes? Not really practical for a meet and greet event. What was the name of that character from some sci-fi show she liked? River something? 

He was still musing on it as he pulled in to park at the station. Stepping down from his truck, he saw Nolan pull up just after him. Tim put a noble effort into suppressing his smile as he saw what the other man was wearing.

Stepping out of his car without an ounce of shame, Nolan was wearing a store bought Green Lantern costume, complete with a green mask that was already slipping down his face. It wasn’t the most cheap-looking costume Tim had ever seen, but it was still exactly the type of goofy costume you’d expect a neighborhood dad to be sporting as he handed out treats. In other words, it was exactly the type of costume Nolan would go for, of course.

“I know, I know,” said Nolan as he fixed the elastic securing the mask to his head. “I spent all week pestering Harper about her costume. All she would tell me was ‘green,’ so I went with my best guess. I think I make it work though, right,” he asked, turning around just enough to show the back of the costume.

Tim didn’t respond, just turned and walked into the open firehouse door.

“I’m taking that as a yes!” Nolan called after him.

* * *

He and Nolan introduced themselves to the firefighters in the engine garage, who all seemed alright, for firefighters. They pointed him in the direction of the folding tables and chairs they had gotten for the night, and told him where they should go. They asked if the two of them could set them up while they finished grilling the hot dogs and hamburgers they’d be serving the families, as well as some special desserts for the kids.

They had already started setting up tables and unstacking chairs by the time Harper arrived, and Tim heard her before he saw her. Looking up at the sound of swishing fabric, he had to take a moment to take in what he was seeing. Nyla Harper, the tough, no-nonsense detective that had taken down cartels, was in a big poofy green ball gown, white elbow-length gloves on her arms, and a sparkly tiara on her styled hair. She walked through the door with her skirt slightly hiked and dropped it once she was through. Looking up, she seemed to notice the two men had ceased all motion. She, Nolan, and Tim all spent a quiet second staring at each other as the awkward moment filled the air. Finally, she spoke.

“What, you’ve never seen anyone dressed as Princess Tiana before?”

Nolan cleared his throat and said, “Of course, I just, uh, am lamenting the fact that I never in a hundred years would have guessed correctly. So, I guess you don’t have to worry about us being too match-y. Besides, you look positively regal.” And then, as if he couldn’t help it, he added, “Your majesty.”

“Don’t get cute, boot, I’ve got my gun under this hoop skirt. My kid’s obsessed with Princess and the Frog right now, so this is only happening for her. What the hell are you dressed as, anyway?”

As Nolan explained his costume to Harper as she supervised him setting up seating (“I’m not unstacking anything, Nolan, I’m wearing a ballgown.”), Tim turned back around just in time to see Angela and West walk in together. They wore almost identical outfits: black long sleeve T-shirts, khaki cargo pants with thick belts, sturdy-looking boots and gloves. Angela had her hair down, and West had what looked like they were supposed to be freckles hand-drawn on his face. For a second, Tim thought that they had come as G.I. action figures too, since they looked straight out of an adventure movie or something. As they got closer, he could see that Tim still had a gloomy look on his face, as if he didn’t want to be here.

“Oh, I know this one!” said Nolan. “Lara Croft from Tomb Raider, and Drake from Uncharted. See, I’m not too old to get the references. My son loves those games, we used to play them together before he left for college.”

Angela frowned, and slapped a hand to her forehead. “Ugh, no, but those are way better ideas! Damn it, Lara Croft would have been awesome, I can’t believe I didn’t think of that.”

“I told you you were overthinking it, Lopez.” West sounded resigned. “She spent all week trying to think of the perfect idea and in the end she panicked and we had to use whatever we could find last-minute at the local Goodwill.”

“So, what are you then?” asked Nolan.

“Kim Possible and Ron Stoppable!” Angela said, clearly mad no one had gotten it.

Nolan nodded slowly. “Oh, I see it now. Yeah, of course, I used to watch that with my son, too.” 

West sighed. “I’m pretty sure the fact that we’re two people of color dressing up as two extremely white characters is gonna cause some confusion. Can we just say we’re Lara Croft and the Uncharted guy?”

“Fine,” growled Angela. “At least I can reuse the costume and make Wesley be Ron Stoppable next time.”

“Where’s Chen?” asked Tim suddenly. It had just occurred to him that he would have expected West and Lucy to come together, not West and Angela.

Angela gave him a look before answering. “She’s coming. I picked them both up from their apartment and we parked down the street, we were almost here when Chen realized she forgot her batteries in the car, so she ran back to get them. I’m sure she’ll be in in a minute, she probably decided to put them in out there.”

“Batteries?” Tim asked, just as Lucy rounded the corner and stepped into the garage.

Tim’s mouth went dry. Not just because she looked good, which, damn, _she did_ , but also because completely by accident, without a bit of help as far as he knew, Lucy had unintentionally dressed as someone from one of his absolute favorite things. Tan tunic, cropped leggings over small brown boots, hair up in three buns, and a lightsaber in her hand, she had come as Rey from Star Wars.

Star Wars. The first time he had seen A New Hope as a kid, after his mom rented it for him from Blockbuster, he had risked his dad’s anger to sneak downstairs in the middle of the night and watch it again. He had grown up rewatching those movies every time he needed to escape from real life for a while, literally wearing out the VHS tapes with how often he would rewind the films just to hit play and watch them again.

He used to practice lightsaber moves with sticks in the yard, calling his dog ‘R2’ and pretending an old tire swing was the cockpit of an X-wing starfighter. As a teen he taped a Leia poster to his wall, and when one of his buddies bought the Lego Millenium Falcon, he spent days going over to his house to help put it together. He had even stood in line to see The Phantom Menace when it came out (after that, though, he had waited till a few days after the premiere to go see the prequels, to give his friends time to warn him about any more annoying-ass characters like Jar Jar Binks). As much as he loved football and the feeling of fighting for his country, those movies _meant_ something to him, and it kind of threw him off how quickly those feelings rushed back to him at the sight of his boot dressed up as one of the main characters.

Now, look. Tim was a grown-ass man. He had gone to see the new movies and he had liked some parts and disliked others. He didn’t particularly care to argue with anyone over whether or not they did a certain character justice, or get into a debate with some man-child about if they were too political or not, or any other conversation about the new trilogy. He didn’t want to argue about opinions. But he still absolutely had opinions. And in his opinion, Rey was one of the coolest Star Wars characters to come out of the franchise. She was talented, determined, and a strong fighter, plus incredibly loyal to her friends and cause. 

Honestly, he could see why Lucy liked her. They had a lot in common.

“There you are!” said West. “Did you get it working?”

She grinned. “Oh yeah.” As she walked up to the group, she twirled the lightsaber hilt around her wrist, raising her arm to head height and swinging the plastic blade up in front of her face with an impressive flourish. She must have hit a button, because the blade erupted into a flash of blue light as the iconic activation noise sounded from the hilt. Tim could tell it wasn’t a cheap Target toy. It looked like the props you could get and actually use as somewhat-realistic lightsabers, with polycarbonate blades that you could bash together without breaking. The hilt looked great, he couldn’t tell if it was real metal or shiny plastic, but even if it was fake it was still high quality work. This wasn’t the type of toy you bought for a one-off costume bit. This was something she owned.

The other cops laughed (well, Harper cracked a small smile, which was pretty good for her), and turned back to the task at hand. Nolan started talking about costumes his son had worn as a kid, distracting the others away from where Lucy and Tim were still standing.

As she held the pose for a second longer, he was unable to help himself. The opportunity was too good. Already internally laughing at his own joke, he raised an eyebrow and said in as straight-faced a tone as he could muster, said, “Hello there.”

She turned her eyes on him as they lit up, a moment of blank friendliness in them until the joke sunk in. “Oh my _god_ , Tim, I can’t believe you just quoted Kenobi at me.” She rolled her eyes and lowered the still glowing blade; it made a slight hum in the air as it moved. 

“Couldn’t resist, boot. That’s not Anakin’s, is it? The hilt doesn’t look right.”

“Good catch, sir, I’m impressed. It’s Leia’s, from the Rise of Skywalker. I thought about getting Rey’s yellow one, but honestly this one was cheaper and I love the blue. Plus, Leia’s still a total badass, so it’s not like it was a bad choice.”

“No arguments here.” He noticed he was smiling, and quickly turned the corners of his lips down. “Now put that thing down and start setting up food, boot! You’re still on the clock tonight.”

She immediately did as he asked, a happy “yes, sir” leaving her lips, and if she noticed him take a closer look at the lightsaber as she turned toward the tables, she didn’t say anything.

**Author's Note:**

> Next chapter we'll get to the actual party, plus a lot more Star Wars references. #sorrynotsorry Better study up on your Star Wars lore because their discussion will be going deeeeep. Like, Knights of the Old Republic deep.
> 
> Did you catch the obnoxious amount of references I made here?? Please say yes I put like 2 whole minutes of thought into them.  
> Did I date myself with the VHS mention? Idk that's how I first saw Star Wars, and Tim's age isn't exactly confirmed but I doubt he would have seen the original trilogy in theaters.  
> If you hate Rey imma be honest with you chief, I don't care about your incorrect opinions and you absolutely will not change my mind on that. But like, I still respect you.
> 
> P.S. somebody please write an actual Jedi AU for the Rookie squad that would be so cool! Fillion already has space street cred!!


End file.
